Fez city a cultural heritage Morocco

Fez el Bali, the old town of Fez, is one of the biggest medieval cities in the world and one of the jewels of Morocco. This immense medina is classed as a Worldwide Heritage Site by UNESCO. Secret corners abound, giving the impression of life in another time.

Pass through the Bab Boujeloud, one of the fourteen gates in the ramparts of Fez el Bali, and you enter a fascinating world where clocks seem to have stopped long ago, around the year 808 AD, the year of its foundations. It was then that it became the first capital of the Kingdom under Idriss II. Improved under the Almoravid (1061-1147) and Almohad dynasties (1147-1248), Fez grew and became an important political and commercial centre in the 13th century under the Merinids. In the 19th century, King Moulay Abdallah made it the spiritual and cultural heart of Morocco.

Fez a cultural heritage

Twelve centuries of history have fashioned this magnificent imperial city. Several of the country’s most beautiful buildings can be found in this very cosmopolitan centre.

The Medina alone, unchanged since its origins, covers 330 hectares. It is a disconcerting labyrinth made up of 9,400 tortuous alleys, where it is a pleasure to lose yourself.185 mosques and nearly 500 palaces can be found there, including some of the gerns of Arabo-Andalusian architecture. Important works are taking place that will restore this fantastic heritage site to its former glory.

Fez city in Morocco the spiritual and cultural centre

Stroll through the alleys

Like sheets of light, the first rays of sunshine penetrate the laths of roseaux that cover the souks and provide them with refreshing shade. Sweet, sugared, amber, bitter, sharp smells mix together. Life gravitates around the market stalls loaded with their pyramids of spices, slippers, carpets, fruits and meat.

« Balekl Balek! » (Look out! Look out!). The muletiers have priority and call majestically for the bubbling, jostling crowd to make a path through the « derbs » (the narrow roads that wind through the Medina). The old Medina of Fez consists of different neighbourhoods that are affiliated to the numerous craft guilds. Markets and dwellings crowd together in a heady kaleidoscope of sounds, colours and smells. To enter the spirit, you must wander through the alleys and let yourself be carried along on the tide. Take the time to look, to breathe and feel the energy that animates this old city of 160,000 habitants.

As with all Moroccan medinas, life in each neighbourhood turns around five focal points. There is the bread oven, where the women leave the dough to be cooked, the fountain, with its crystalline sounds, and the hammam, which is the centre of social life. On the cultural side, there is the mosque, the spiritual centre, and the medersa, the Koranic school. The Bou Inania medersa, built between 1350 and 1357, is considered amongst the most beautiful of theological colleges because of its Arabo-Andalusian architecture. With its white marble columns, its zellige (decorative tiles), stucco adorned with plants and verses of the Koran and ceilings of sculptured cedar, it is a masterpiece.

The mosque, the jewel of the Maghreb

Five times a day the spellbinding chants of the muezzin echo out to call the faithful to prayer and near the magnificent Kairouan (or Qaraouiyyin) mosque, the crowd is at its densest. It can hold 20,000 people but it is difficult to appreciate all its dimensions and non-Muslims are not allowed to enter.
The mosque was founded in the 9th century by the Kairouans and then enlarged by the Almoravid Sultan, Ali ben Youssef, in the 12th century. The roof is covered with sparkling emerald tiles. Its elegant fountains are adorned with mosaics and its courtyards are made from marble. The university, built between 859 and 862 AD, is one of the oldest to be found anywhere and its library is one of the best in the Muslim world, containing more than 30,000 books.

Fez, a secret city with mysteries for travellers to Morocco

A mosaic of crafts
Little by little, as the traveller ventures further into the medina, his senses will become accustomed to the different sounds. In the Place As-Seffarine, metallic hammering testifies to the presence of craftsmen making large marriage platters and table services in copper and brass. Further on, the humming of sewing machines and the ringing of chisels on stone moulds can be heard. Emerging onto a little shaded square, the air is filled with the repetitive sound of tapping hammers. This is the neighbourhood where zellige has been produced for a thousand years. Zellige, the marvellous multicoloured mosaics that can be seen on fountains, patios and columns. Here and there, a turn into an alley can reveal a fondouk, an old caravenserai, where the itinerant salesmen could stay and expose their wares. One of the most beautiful in the medina is to be found in the Place An-Nejjarine. It has been renovated and turned into a Museum of wood arts and crafts.

You can tell by the smell when you are approaching Fez’s famous tanneries with their stinking run-off. From the height of a platform, the visitor can watch the agile tanners. Their methods of working around the massive vats of natural colorants have hardly changed for centuries. The skins are soaked in these vats before being turned into the leather goods that have made the reputation of the craftsmen of Fez. Fez, a secret city that can be made to reveal some of its mysteries, a city that offers a myriad of voyages.

Tetouane: ‘Daughter of Granada’

The Daughter of Granada You see these Berber women again, deep in the heart of the Medina at Tetouane, the equally fascinating and historic centre of this elegant city east of Tangier. In the Berber language Tetouane means ‘open your eyes’, probably refering to its rapid construction in the 15th century by Andalucian refugees. Exiled from Southern Spain, these Muslim and Jewish settlers brought with them a sophisticated architectural and decorative tradition evident in the elaborate wrought iron balconies, ornate plasterwork and gleaming tiles. Tetouanis call their city ‘Daughter of Granada’, and the well maintained formal grandeur of the buildings fronting wide straight Iberian-style streets contrasts vividly with the disorder of the miniscule alleys of the Medina fascinating but hectic, with every kind of commercial and craft endeavour. Yet its inhabitants, given a smile and a « Bonjour », are fulsomely warm and welcoming.

The pace really slows down in the charming, sleepy little town of Asilah, beneath which the sea laps at 16th century Portuguese ramparts. Its Palais Raisuli was the headquarters of the notorious bandit Ahmed el Raisuli who succeeded in extracting a handsome ransom for the Times correspondent Walter Harris who he’d kidnapped but who became his friend. The palace of the pirate-pasha is now the competitions venue for painters, poets and musicians every August. Asilah is famous for its murals, painted on every available space during its two week cultural festival.
Tetouane, Asilah, the lovely town of Chechaouan, and of course Tangier itself, are the main lures away from hotel, pool and beach for travellers to this region. Nowadays another kind of visitor is drawn to this beautiful coastline where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean, and Spain almost touches Morocco. The cosmopolitan yachting fraternity has begun to appreciate how different the two worlds are.

Marinasmir, Morocco’s first leisure marina provides an exciting contrast as a pleasure destination to some of the marinas in southern Spain. Expertly managed by Marina Marbella, the port provides all the modem requirements and necessities for luxury boats to more comfortably and safely, yet with the charm of North Africa just outside the gates. The adjoining 4km of beaches are almost emerald Caribbean. The port itself has many international and local restaurants; there are also clubs and pubs – but in the greatest possible Moorish taste, as the style is strictly traditional. Visitors in July and August will enjoy meeting the Moroccan jet set from Rabat and Casablanca, when BMW’s and Sea Rays motor boats play elegantly, with just a hint of Gucci or Paris on the piers. Every August Marina Marbella put on a gala Moroccan night with a huge flotilla of boats enjoying bedouin tents, snake charmers, camel rides, traditional dancing, couscous, mint teas and open fires.

For those not living on board, elegant and still reasonably-priced villas and flats built in the modern Moorish style are one alternative.
Lovers of beach holidays without crowds and with all the creature comforts should take a close look at the Hyatt Hotel at Marinasmir.lt boasts a river-like swimming pool through the links gardens, leading almost to the sandy beach via a spectacular ha-ha waterfall. Located just a pebble’s throw from the fun of the Marina, guests can enjoy barbecues on the panoramic terraces at lunchtime and dine portside in the evening – and there’s a lively piano bar and international restaurant too. The hotel is a real swinger in July and August, but for the other months it makes a tranquil and luxurious getaway.

The secret is out – the whisper is that this part of the North African coast is the new Cote d’Azur. It’s no secret that the official Tangier ‘season’ begins on April 1st and ends on November 15th, but my advice is to go there soon – at any time of the year.